AFP, published on Saturday 29 October 2022 at 16:54
It’s never easy to remember the names of everyone you meet at a party, except in Tokyo, where on Saturday the 178 guests were all Hirokazu Tanaka and gathered to break the then-held record of 164 by Martha Stewart .
From 3-year-old Hirokazu Tanaka to 80-year-old Hirokazu Tanaka to Hirokazu Tanaka from Hanoi, they all wore the eponymous T-shirt and sat in a crowded theater for five minutes, according to Guinness rules before an official from the organization formalized the new one Record.
“I never expected that we would break such a ridiculous record,” said Hirokazu Tanaka, 53, the man behind the rally, after years of effort and two failures.
To distinguish the 178 Hirokazu Tanaka, each of them was assigned a pseudonym inspired by their hobbies, occupation, or favorite dish. Also, the crowd greeted Hirokazu Tanaka “Sunglasses”, Hirokazu Tanaka “Chewing Gum” and Hirokazu Tanaka “Triathlon” as soon as they arrived. The founder of Tanaka was baptized “Semi-Leader”.
The world record for the “largest gathering of people with the same first and last name” was previously held by 164 Martha Stewarts who met on the set of a television show in New York in 2005.
The new record-breaker’s calling dates back to 1994, when he heard about baseball prodigy Hirokazu Tanaka on the news and felt the “immense joy” of sharing the name he had previously thought to be commonplace.
The record attempt failed twice, most notably in 2017 when only 87 of them met.
But a silver lining appeared when Guinness clarified that the gist of the name is pronounced “Hirokazu Tanaka” regardless of whether the Japanese characters used to write it are slightly different.
A 179th namesake, Hirokazu Tanaka “Mini-Van,” should have been on the record, but he died of Covid-19 last year, his father Suzuko Tanaka told AFP. “He was always available for the events of this group,” he says, “he would have been very happy today.”